Nevada County picayune., 1887-01-12

was in all inside pocket oi my vest, but the monkey showed disposi- lion to follow me. After firing at him several times l gave it up. His tongh hide seemed bullet proof, and there was no chance to kill him unless l hat him in the eye. The declining sun warned me that it was time 10 seek shelter for the night, and, l knew that in these tropical solitudes there was nc twilight. l saw no cultivated fields. no houses, no signs of the hacienda of Don Francisco Men dez. The situation was growing serious. Occasionally stone weighing pound or two was hurl- ed at me from some leafy covert, and then the gigantic monkey would give horrible laugh and scamper away, He was funny
 
 looking chap ill my blue flannel coat, but was too mad to enjoy the comic aspect of the matter, It struck me that if the brute caught me in the dark he would make an end of mo in no time. 1t was both horrible and humiliating, such a death in tte taugled forests ot this strange land. Just then l saw, s short distance off in a clearing, a sqare adobe hut. Here was shel- ter and protection.
 was not much disappointed to find the hut uninhabited. It was strongly built. with no windows, and one entrance from which the door had long since rotted away. A stepladder led to loft. As cendimg 1 found small apartment dinlv lighted by round holes Ill the wall. which had evidently been used hy shar )shooters at some rev olulionary period in the history ot the country. My mind was made up in an instant. l went back to my mvmnStang and picketed him about 100 wards from the hut in the bush ps Then returned to my fortress just as darkness closed in upon we. and sought refuge in the lott, pull ing up the ladder after me. | was safe here. even from the monkey, and lay down feeling sense of perfect security.
 it must have been late in the night when l heard something moving in the room under me. Looking through the opening In the floor, could see nothing. 1 struck a match, and hy the tlickeriug flame recognized the monkey. The wretch still wore my coat, and In the dim. uncertain light his appear aucc was more repulsive than ever. | lav down again, knowing that the beast could not get into the loft, and commenced planning for his destruction in the morning. l was satisfied that the animal belonged to a species of mountain apes of great strength and terrible ferocity. Their cunning, l had heard was al most human, and they did not Scruple to attack men and rend them limb from limb. l concluded, |, when the morning light appeared, to draw the brute's attention and shoot him in one of his eyes. Having settled on this plan, l was about dropping into a doze, when l heard voices outside the hut. l listened with alert ears.
 "lf, as you say, Pedro, that this American devil is inside, we should ambush him and shoot him when he comes out in the morning"
 Now, by all the saints, Juan," was the reply of Pedro, you are cowardly fool. The Ameriedn devl. like all his devils of country men, has his eyes open, and may get the drop on us."
 l understood it all. recognized the voices. Pedro and Juan had followed me all the way from Jack sons caihp.
 What to do was the question. II was hard to decide, aud l waited further developments.
 The two robbers converseI in low whispers, and all that could ] hear was their fiual agreement to rash in and oNerpower me. "Wonder what they will do with tine monkey?" said to myself, with chuckie
 ''I hear the American moying,n said Pedro
 ] IL was the monkey, The mon 4. a, ypno ual inn in a oirola ..t fl A